LAS VEGAS (FOX5) — Guillermo Bonnet-Laboy has been in the community recreation space most his life.
Moving to Las Vegas from the Dominican Republic, he’s spent the better part of 20 years trying to connect with this place he identifies as home.
“This doesn’t really feel like a job. For me, it’s almost been more so like a calling,” Bonnet-Laboy said. “Being able to work in the community, being able to help people out has just been it’s amazing to see like what you can do when you’re able to pour into people and pour into the community.”
That passion helps the center maintain an engaging atmosphere for longtime guests or newcomers like Katherine Miller.
“Originally we went to a different center in town. Decided to switch it up and try this one. It was a little closer to work and we’re pleasantly surprised,” Shields said. “We all know people with kids and the struggle to balance work and finding a place where they also feel comfortable and stimulated. This center works really hard to do that.”
Three years ago, the Rafael Rivera Revitalization Plan was conducted in 2022, a survey asking people in East Las Vegas about what is good and bad about their community.
One of the larger questions was ‘what would be one thing people would want to see changed in East Las Vegas?’
Of the 26 answers given from more than 350 people, creating more activities for kids outside of school was a top 10 response.
In particular, people cited a desire to have more community centers or recreation centers built to provide more secure facilities for the youth.
Bonnet Laboy told FOX 5 that there has been steady growth in adding new programs at this center and feels that growth will only continue.
“We have programming for seniors. We have programming for families. We have programming for youth and then we have beautiful event space,” Bonnet-Laboy said. “I believe that there always could be more than me being here in the last two years. I can say that all of our program here has increased and we’ve been throwing out different and new programs.”
Parents like Sophia McAllister appreciate the range of activities at the center but more importantly the security measures that makes her feel comfortable leaving her children and grandchildren in their care.
“The fact that each of the kids get to have that experience while they’re here. It’s in a safe environment, lots of supervision. It’s a lot of fun,” McAllister said.
Bonnet-Laboy takes a lot of pride in his staff, believing they make the difference in truly connecting with the people living in the east valley.
The majority of our staff is either from the east side or has spent a significant amount of time on the east side so they can really relate to our families, our youth, to our seniors,” Bonnet-Laboy said.
Then the majority of my staff, they are bilingual, so there’s never a time where someone can come in and kind of not communicate. So if there was ever a situation that someone was having such a struggle at the front desk, they could always reach out to me or any of the staff here that’s bilingual.”
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